Barpeta, Assam: Shahin Alam is a carpenter, a muazzin at a mosque and as well as a teacher at a maktab in Tinsukia district of Assam. He has been living in Lohari Kochari village, which is about 600 kilometre from his hometown in Silchar.
On August 10, a group of people arrived near his maktab and began questioning why he had opened it. The group threatened him, saying, “Toi iyar pora jaboi lagibo” (You must leave this place). He identified himself as the Muslim man wearing a Panjabi and skull cap in a Newz Now video, where a group was seen threatening him.
“They asked me to show my Aadhaar card. When I showed it to them, they told me, ‘You are a proper Bangladeshi’,” Alam says.
Alam further adds, “After a while, the group came with a bulldozer and police and demolished the maktab.”
A media outlet circulated a video claiming that the small structure of the maktab had been demolished by an excavator. During the demolition, the video shows a group of youth chanting slogans such as “Jai Aai Axom” (Hail mother Assam) and “Bir Lachit Sena Zindabad.”
“People had been living peacefully here since I came to this place. This incident happened suddenly.” Alam tells The Wire.
Since the BJP government came to power in 2016, a sharp rise in eviction drives across Assam has displaced more than 15,000 families and killed at least eight persons, disproportionately affecting Miya Muslims – many of whom have lived in these areas for several decades.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.